The year is about 1991, the event, well, there's no doubt the photo shoot at the airport
in Grand Rapids happened. And boy did it, happen.
I got us
permission to use the hangar at Rapid Air Service to bring a few cars in and take
pictures of the cars in the hangar in front of a couple of corporate planes, the
owners son Jim Vantine and I worked together at the Control Tower there, so
Vito and I came up with the idea to get a couple of girls from Parkway to pose
with the cars at the hangar for a Club Video and picture session.
Everything went off
without a hitch, Mark Telder was there with his Mustang. Jimmer and his
Goat, and John Castline and his red Chevelle were there as well, if my memory
serves me correctly. The problem, if you want to call it a problem is that we
wanted to use the video for the AutoRama, as several people videotaped the whole thing, and I mean to say the WHOLE thing. Even when one of the girls took off all of her clothes and was being
very very friendly, and did I mention there were 15 or 20 guys there having a
couple of cocktails, well yea there were. So now it was kind of looking like a
night at the Tropics, (She did look cold though, could have been the winter and
no clothes thing..hmm), so if you try
real hard you all can get the idea of
what might be on these videos. So using them at the AutoRama was pretty much
out of the question, so it just turned into a very very fun evening.
Well Vito asked
me to keep a copy of the evening's events and I was more than happy to help him
out as my wife Chris is not a nosey person by her nature, but just in case, I
hide the tape anyway (if you hear Vito's version I left it on top the TV).
Big Round Greg
likes to talk and laugh too much, as everyone that knows Greg knows if you have
a secret do not tell Greg.. (sorry Greg)
so Greg is in the pizza shop at Dutton and says something funny to
someone about the photo shoot, and they all laugh he he he.. Mary not one to
miss much, she never misses anything!! Knows there is a tape of something and
that Vito or Larry have it. I am not positive about this part but I am sure I
am right, Mary calls Chris and fill's her in on what she think she knows and
then helps Chris find the tape or tells her to tear the house apart until she
finds the tape, because it is not
at her house, I am sure this is close to
reality, but not for sure because Chris
and Mary aint talking.
So to make a real
long story short, Mary and Chris find the tape and play it at the Pizza Shop in
Dutton, I find this out from my lovely wife and tell Vito he has a problem,
we were at his garage working on his T-Bird. He says "drive me to Dutton" as
he grabs this big ass axe. I said "what are you going to do" (already having a good
idea) he say's "just drive"!!
So we get to the
Pizza Shop and Vito gets out and walks in to the office. He
just starts wailing on the vcr with the axe, one swing, after another, after another until
there is piece's and parts everywhere in the office. Now remember this is back
in the day, when VCR's were going for hundred dollars at the time. And he
annihilates this thing, looking like Paul Bunyan the only thing missing was
ol' Blue (Paul's Ox) and then just as fast as he went in, he turns around to me and says "that should take care of any more
conversation about the photo shoot", and he is out the door and back in my car.
I am just standing there looking at Mary and Chris and Nick is just a
toddler (it was the VCR he watched cartoons on) so I finally just hit the door and
get back in the car. Vito's is sitting there with a big ole shit eating grin,
now that is how you put a stop to that bullshit". And I am going wow, BUT, come on V at least
you could have taken the tape out first, (it was my only copy).. there was some
good stuff on there...
Larry Rasnake
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